On the Spot life cards - Highflyers Publishing

On the Spot
life cards
Designed in response to requests from practitioners
in the field, the On the Spot Life Cards contain hardly
any text and a wealth of full colour visual images to
help students explore the skills needed to cope with
everyday situations. A key part of reflecting on our
own skills and experiences is being able to visualise,
in our minds eye, what is involved in any given
activity. Many young people struggle to form these
images in their minds. Often we try and talk through
an activity with students but for many of them
converting speech to visual images within their
imaginations can be very difficult. These cards provide
ready made visual images around which students can
begin to build up a picture of what an activity entails.
They deliberately include equipment, people and other
items with which they may already be familiar to
enable students to make the connections to their own
experiences.
Suggested uses:
Recording Achievement and Action Planning
Working with individual students, get them to look at
any given card and then ask them to talk about what
experience, if any, they have of doing this activity. Get
them to answer the questions posed on the card.
In this way the cards can be used to explore what a
student can already do (their achievements) and what
they need to practice doing more (their action plan).
Tell me a story
Ask the students to tell a story about the activity
using the person in the main picture as the central
character. For example, Going to the Supermarket:
This is Steven, he is going to the supermarket. Before
he goes he decides what he needs to buy and writes
out his shopping list. When he gets there he gets
himself a trolley and then he ..
What comes first?
Ask the students to work out which of the small
drawings comes first. For example, Keeping yourself
clean and tidy: Do you dry your hair with the hairdryer
before you use the shampoo?
Which would you use?
Ask the students which items they would use for
specific activities which fall under the main heading:
For example, Cleaning and tidying up: Which of these
things would you use to wash up? Which would you
use to clean the bathroom?
The titles in this series are:
1 Baking a cake
2 Catching a train
3 Cleaning and tidying up
4 Cooking something for yourself
5 Getting around by bicycle
6 Getting around locally
7 Getting ready for Christmas
8 Getting ready to go out
9 Going bowling
10 Going for fish and chips
11 Going into town
12 Going on day trips
13 Going on holiday
14 Going out for a meal
15 Going to a party
16 Going to hospital
17 Going to Scouts or Guides
18 Going to the cinema
19 Going to the dentists
20 Going to the doctors
21 Going to the hairdressers
22 Going to the library
23 Going to the Post Office
24 Going to the supermarket
25 Going to the swimming baths
26 Having a friend over to stay
27 Helping friends and neighbours
28 Helping in the garden
29 Helping with decorating
30 Hiring a video
31 Keeping fit
32 Keeping yourself clean and tidy
33 Looking after a pet
34 Looking after your clothes and shoes
35 Making a packed lunch
36 Making hot or cold drinks
37 Shopping for clothes and shoes
38 Spending time with friends
39 Tidying your bedroom
40 Using a fast food restaurant
What’s missing?
Cut out pieces of card to cover over some of the
smaller drawings. Then ask students to guess what
drawings might be under the card.

Using the CD (site licence)
The CD gives you a software version of the Life
cards in Adobe Acrobat format. You can use this
version to view the cards on screen and to print
extra copies.
System requirements for running Adobe
Acrobat Reader 4.0
Windows
486 or Pentium Processor based personal computer
Microsoft Windows 95,98 or Windows NT 4.0 with
service pack 3 or later
10MB of available RAM on Windows 95 and
Windows 98 (16MB recommended)
16MB of available RAM on Windows NT (24MB
recommended)
10MB of available hard disk space
Instructions
If you do not have a copy of Adobe Acrobat Reader
vs 4 on your computer you will need to install that
first.
Instructions for installing Acrobat Reader vs. 4.0
• Put the CD in your CD drive
• Click on the START button
• Select RUN
• Type X:\ar40eng.exe replacing X with the letter of
your CD drive
• Click OK
FREE COPIES
Here at HighFlyers Publishing we are always
keen to take feedback on our products. If when
you use these cards you feel strongly that
something is missing or needs adding in or
changing please let us know and if we
incorporate your suggestion into the cards we will
send you a free copy of the amended set.
COPYRIGHT
The contents of this pack are copyright material.
All rights are reserved by Highflyers Publishing
Ltd, who grant permission for the contents to be
copied by purchasers, provided that such copies
are used solely in the purchasing school, college
or individual work place. Any copying or
distribution of copies beyond these limits is
illegal.
© Highflyers Publishing Ltd Sept 2000
If you have a copy of Acrobat Reader vs 4.0 on
your computer:
• Put the CD in your CD drive
• Go to Windows Explorer
• Copy the Lifecards.pdf into a convenient
directory on your computer.
• To run Acrobat Reader click the START button
and select Acrobat Reader vs 4.0 and then click
on Acrobat Reader vs 4.0. Acrobat Reader will
start.
• To open the Lifecards file, click on FILE and then
OPEN.
• Find the directory with the Lifecards.pdf and
click on OPEN.
Once a file is open you can choose which pages
you want to print. For a guide to using Acrobat
Reader click on HELP on the top menu bar and
Readers Guide. This is a comprehensive guide to
using Acrobat Reader which you can view on screen
or print out.
A
T
F
HighFlyers Publishing Ltd,
9 Riverway,
Stafford,
Staffordshire,
ST16 3TH.
01785 257744
01785 228765
E
W
info@highflyerspublishing.co.uk
www.highflyerspublishing.co.uk

Baking a cake
Here are some of the things you might use or come across.
What would you do with them?
Can you think of any other things you might use?
flour
sugar
eggs
margarine
oven gloves
weighing
scales
cake tin
oven
cooling tray
piping bag
On the Spot
life cards
decorations
jar of jam
© Highflyers Publishing 2000